Bernard Black (Dylan Moran), owns a book shop which of course he names after himself; Black Books, and maybe this is the problem, for Bernard has trouble parting with his books – he sees them all as his; they’re mine, this one’s mine, that’s mine, oh that one’s rubbish, you can have that. He’s morbid, dark, unkempt, full of irony and hypocrisies. He moans his shop’s doing badly and yet he often chases the customers away, all while giving a prime example of how they’re wrong and he’s always right. For some reason he’s not excelling in the business world, but he is raking in the comedy coins.
Quirkily moody, Black Books is comedically relevant to living, dating and working in today’s world, along with a shop life that you can’t help but grin widely in agreement at; as a customer haggles and gripes over paying £3 for a book, settling in the end to pay £2.50 for it instead, which Bernard agrees to, but only after ripping out the first few pages of the book, “you can have the rest when you come back with the 50p” – sheer brilliance.
Despite the lack of sales, Bernard hires the sweet and caring Manny (Bill Bailey) who he accurately describes in one scene as “you’re a beard with an idiot hanging off it.” Manny however, unlike the rest tries to do better, but he often fails and with this is dragged down through teasing, peer pressure and bullying to Bernard’s level of depravity, and yet Manny is still the most optimistic of the three. The third companion of the trio being Bernard’s neighbour Fran (Tamsin Greig), who in the first season runs the shop next door and needs no excuse in joining Bernard for a drink – it’s a case of who’s enabling who – which they’ll each blame the other for, while competing in a game of who can drink the most and still stand upright, or otherwise collapse facedown and still being reaching for the last droplet.
Dylan Moran created Black Books, and acts out the titular role, whilst also being the writer of twelve episodes. Understanding the character inside and out, it comes as no surprise that he perfectly encapsulates Bernard as a nothing-to-lose maniac whose too lazy to do anything more sinister than scare away those that come near him, and often through hilarious antics. Meanwhile the character Fran is desperate for love, and here she chases away the men that come into her life with accidental gusto – but she is normal, she is! (but only when there’s no one around). Tamsin Greig is great as Fran, and brilliantly partners against Moran in his comedic timing, their jokes hitting their mark, before equally meeting their match in darkly dry gags. In addition to their talent are Bill Bailey’s multiple ones of slapstick to quick retorts, musical know-how and panache, to…did he just eat a string of bees?? It certainly doesn’t hurt that all of the actors are natural comedians, their styles so different that together they cause all the accompaniments of laughter – snorts of course being included.
None of the characters in Black Books are responsible, mature or particularly likeable, they bicker, snipe, put themselves down, take everyone else with them, and work brilliantly together in making everything worse, but at least they have each other.
Creator: Dylan Moran
